Throw the children to me, urges man who escaped house fire. But no one else survived

Kitsap County fire investigators sifted through the charred shell of a two-story home outside Port Orchard Sunday, looking for clues to the cause of a fire that roared through the wood-frame home early Saturday, killing two young children, their father and his mother.

Officials have not formally identified the victims pending examination by the medical examiner, however devastated neighbors described a close-knit clan always willing to share a smile or lend a hand.

One resident of the home escaped. He was described by officials as a man in his 60s and by neighbors as the husband, father and grandfather of the victims. He was taken to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton and by late Saturday had been released.

Neighbors on Sunday recalled waking to a commotion and then the yells and screams of the man, who was trying to douse the roaring flames with a neighbor’s garden hose.

“The heat was too great to use the hose,” longtime neighbor John Spillinger told the Kitsap Sun.

“He kept saying, ‘They’re trapped, they’re trapped. I couldn’t get them out.’ ”

Another neighbor, Robert McCarthy, said he was told that the man stood beneath the second-story window yelling at his son to throw the children to him.

“It’s absolutely devastating,” said McCarthy. “They were very nice, very good people who loved their grandchildren.”

He said the two-story frame home — owned by the older couple — housed three generations. Neighbors described the family as “close-knit” and friendly.

The fire resulted in a two-alarm response from Kitsap County Fire Department, which has been joined in the investigation by the Sheriff’s Office and the Kitsap County fire marshal.

The fire was so intense when the first engines arrived on the scene that firefighters ultimately concentrated on not letting it spread to adjacent buildings.

The fire was reported just before 4 a.m. Saturday. By the time it was extinguished three hours later, it had gutted the home and burned so hot that it charred a child’s wooden swing and playset in the backyard. A contractor had to be called in to shore up the smoldering structure so investigators could get inside.

Saturday afternoon, the bodies of the man, in his 30s, and his two children — an infant boy and a toddler girl — were found together in an upstairs bedroom.

The body of the woman, in her 60s, was found in an adjacent bedroom, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s office.

Bill Zimmermann, another neighbor, said the grandmother who perished was a fantastic cook who was always feeding people in the neighborhood. She had delivered “a whole tray of lumpia” to him and his wife just days ago, he said.

They “were just great people, always smiling, always laughing,” Zimmermann said.

He was among the first to call 911 when he woke early Saturday and saw the flames “shooting through the roof.”

“I was sad I couldn’t help,” Zimmermann said. “I heard there were people I there but I couldn’t get inside.”

“They were the sweetest family,” said Lena Grilli, a young person who lives right next door. The older man “was always helping us; he fixed our heater and she always helped me with the yard.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Throw the children to me, urges man who escaped house fire. But no one else survived."